June 12
2003

'Buffy' video doesn't slay us
Akron Beacon Journal review of Season 4 DVD with caption, "4th season a mishmash of characters and plots that's confusing."

"Whedon further acknowledges an internal contradiction in the season by arguing that it contains some of the show's best individual episodes but that it probably didn't work as a season-long dramatic arc. And an arc is what many fans expect from a serialized show like Buffy, especially when you examine an entire season on home video."

Willing to bet that most people that will buy the DVDs already know what season 4 was about. This is more a review of season 4 than of the DVD set, which, I suppose, was done to fill out the review because "Fox sent out only the first and sixth discs of the season for review." Can't really talk about the DVD set then, especially when it's missing most of the content.

"And there was an odd continuity glitch when the series aired, with a postponed episode from season three (already issued in that season's DVD set) airing early in season four."

"And there's an underlying sense that the show's makers were struggling with ways to keep the show interesting to themselves; Whedon notes that the fourth-season finale was something he had never done before."

My, what an interesting conclusion. Rather than think Joss was reaching for ways to challenge himself and become a fuller artist of the medium, the reviewer decides that this experimentation meant Joss was thinking "God this season is boring me - what can I do to stay awake?"

I agree - bad review. (More to the point, it seems that the writer composed the review simply to emphasize an opinion he already held.)